Education
Articles on the role of education in the work environment.
Free workplace language training in Denmark
All foreigners with permanent residency in Denmark are entitled to Danish language lessons. Many language courses are held in the workplace, and businesses see the benefits of in-house language training.
English - Denmark's future professional language
To get a job in Denmark you must learn Danish, but in the long term both private and public employers must accept English as the professional language, says Foreningen Nydansker (the association for the integration of immigrants into the Danish labour market), which represents 130 small and larger Danish businesses.
Job-related Swedish language training boosts employment
Several larger municipalities in Sweden are making Swedish lessons for immigrants more targeted to the labour market. Language lessons are mixed with practical learning. Örebro municipality west of Stockholm represents one example where vocational education is mixed with language lessons.
Finland demands strong language skills
Finnish can be a difficult language to learn. Many immigrants have found out the hard way. To get a job you need very good spoken and written Finnish. It is crucial to invest in language skills in order to fully take part in Finnish society.
Soft skills needed for the new White and Green jobs
The EU Commission has presented a new agenda for new skills and jobs. During the economic crisis there are still two kinds of jobs that are in extra demand – the white and the green ones.
Hillevi Engström: more social responsibility needed in working life
Once the leading star of Swedish Police, Hillevi Engström is now in charge of whipping working life into line. She wants to use her role as Minister for Employment to challenge businesses to take social responsibility. In return she offers economical incentives and an improved education system.
Red cabinet member - impatient in the long run
Audun Lysbakken swears that it is he - and not the media - who will set the agenda for his ministry's work. That means working on long-term, preventative measures to avoid people becoming social outsiders - results of which will not show up on statistics for another 10 to 15 years.
Labour ministers up the fight to prevent a lost generation
How do you fight youth unemployment? That was the theme when Nordic labour ministers met in Reykjavik in November. One in five European youths is unemployed. There is fear of a lost generation. The Nordic countries focus on education and help on an individual level to help young people into working life.
Tailored and targeted measures to help young Danes
Denmark is launching a tailored and targeted drive for 15 to 17 year-olds to get them into education or work. The Danish government plans to spend 1.25 billion Kroner (€170 million) over three years to see the plan through. But the Danish Confederation of Trade Unions says a threat to cut youth benefits is a slap in the face of the weakest families.
Making new welfare policy in the US
Can conditional cash payments help your kids stay in school or do well on tests or help families beat the poverty trap? It was proven successful in Mexico, New York City is testing it now, and Britain's Gordon Brown is watching closely to see if there is something to learn.
Border-less learning
"Adult learning is a priority", said Norwegian deputy minister Åge Rosnes, when he opened the conference "Quality adult learning. A challenge for the Nordic welfare model?" It was one of many events which form part of "The Nordic Network for Adult Learning" (NVL). It begun in January 2005 as an initiative by the Nordic Council of Ministers. It's task is to develop adult learning.
Work place learning with a human face
Life-long learning is seen as the golden key to unlock the magic door to the future. Through continued competence development we shall overcome global competition and accelerating technological development, employers will find competent employees, and employees will be flexible enough to follow the windy road of development. In the long run, knowledge will secure growth and welfare.
Packing your bags is hard to do
Two nights a week, over twenty foreigners like me gather in a classroom at an Oslo language school, determined to improve our faltering Norwegian.
Book in review: Life and learning on the Net
Distance learning via the Internet is an area fraught with high expectations.
A Nordic strategy for maintaining a supply of labour?
As with the rest of Europe, the labour force in the Nordic countries will change in the future. There is a great risk of a future lack of manpower. Therefore discussions will start between politicians and the social partners regarding future manpower requirements. The challenge is to find strategies that cover future manpower needs, without renouncing fundamental value systems.
The hunt for skills
A central feature of developments is the hunt for skilled personnel. Developments are taking place so fast that it is necessary for people to constantly upgrade their knowledge. For instance, it is estimated that there will be three generations of technology during a graduate engineering course. The various countries are now going in for skills updates.
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